News of the Western Belize Recreational Area, about 500 square miles of waterfalls, caves, Mayan ruins and pyramids, Belize Alps, foothills, ranches and farms, tourist accomodations of all types and description, tours and expeditions for vacationers and visitors. Even a small growing expatriate retirement group of people from different countries. In Belize, this is where it is happening, all the things that are fun and even serious, with a climate of ETERNAL SPRING.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

MARMITE in Belize and the British Retiree community.

Ray from Falconview Backpackers Adventure Hostel, born in England, receiving with grateful thanks from Bob, running PACZ TOURS, a half used jar of MARMITE. The Western Belize Cayo District has a lot of British ex-military that retired from the British Army and married local girls. In this quiet back water of the previous British Empire, life is good. Bob is retired military and famous out in the Western Belize Recreational Area for his smile and helpful gracious ways of assisting all visitors to Belize. He married a long time ago and settled in Belize and for many years developed and ran EVA'S Restaurant, famous in movies and books for spy and adventure places in this part of the world. The building got sold out from under him and he ended up co-creating PACZ TOURS, which in turn rents their office space from Wally another retired Englishman, who has now developed his small TOURIST HOTEL into a dynamo place on main street business section of San Ignacio Town. The bottle of MARMITE is almost exclusively a much sought after delicacy from England, but now also manufactured in Canada as well. Brodies down on the coast used to import MARMITE and Celinas Store in San Ignacio used to import it out to Western Belize from the coast. They no longer do. Consequently, MARMITE now has to be sent by English relatives, by postal service all the way from Blighty, a name describing the UK. Marmite for me was a childhood addiction acquired during the bombing blitz of England by the Germans. For a couple of years, the ships coming from Africa, Argentina, and North America were torpedoed and all we had to eat as children in England, was bone soup, in which my mother recycled a bone in boiling water and added MARMITE for flavoring. Marmite is mostly used today as a sandwich spread and is delicious to the palate on fresh toast with butter. Unfortunately, MARMITE is an acquired taste. When my own four daughters were growing up on the Great Coral Barrier Reef island of Caye Caulker here in Belize, they learned to like MARMITE on toast also. Though their fellow school children called it STINKING TOE. Because of the smell and flavor. It is not something you learn to eat in the first bite. MARMITE is a yeast extract and supplies all the B vitamins, much needed by children and adults for their health. It has many other uses, as in beer and things like that. Needless to say, children raised in England love MARMITE and in Belize since the British Army left, it is harder to get than hen's teeth. Bob in this photo just got three small bottles from his relatives in England by mail. He is donating to me, half a used bottle, for which believe me, I would get down on bended knees and thank him profusely. Got to have my Marmite, almost daily and probably weekly. I usually go through a bottle a week and use it on toast as an appetizer when watching my diet, or I get the craving. MARMITE IS A VERY HEALTHY ADDICTION TO HAVE, you get all the B vitamins, that fight things like malaria and useful for prevention of many diseases.